Kids Want Virtual Currency Too

VeeCee empowers young people to curate their own buying choices by maintaining an online wish-list. It then provides parents a portal through which to make the purchases and gives them final say on whether items are appropriate.

The platform enables young people to earn rewards from their guardians, peers and other adults, for chores and other tasks. These virtual currency (VeeCee) rewards can be used to make secure purchases from the online store, shared with friends, or saved towards wish-list items.

A three-way authentication process requires two adults to approve a transaction before it is accepted. This gives parents more control over how the virtual currency is spent. Alternatively, an adult could directly buy a gift from a niece or nephew’s wish list, making the struggle of finding the right Christmas and birthday presents a thing of the past.

The platform is also supporting TechFugees, enabling VeeCee donations to less privileged kids to get Christmas presents or school books from their wish list.

Disrupt Bedtime

The Disrupt Hackathon is a 24 Hour event preceding the annual Disrupt London conference organized by TechCrunch. Developers and engineers from around the world have just 24 hours to create and present a new product to a panel of expert judges.

Being too young to stay overnight at the Hackathon, Ebenezer and fellow teammate Ashley Frempong, started to brainstorm ideas in the week before the event started. When the idea for VeeCee came about, “We got really hyped about it,” said Ebenezer.

The boys built the service with the rest of their four-man team, who came together 6 months ago, over a shared love for coding in the back of a Barking library, a space called DigiLab and home of the community’s local tech center.

The Future’s Bright

The team intends to keep working on the project, aiming to further improve service flow and user experience. They are also looking at implementing blockchain technologies, to incorporate real crypto-currencies, smart contracts, and distributed systems.

Some of the previous Hackathon entries have seen great success. GroupMe, for example, was created overnight in the competition, and ultimately acquired by Skype for $80m. So, with some help from DigiLab, the group are hoping to create a viable business. They plan a soft-launch with a small community to test and gather feedback.

On Tuesday evening at the WeWork Times Square in New York, Charlie Shrem and Marco Santori featured in an hour-plus long panel covering a wide range of topics in the Bitcoin space, including ICOs, the Ethereum hard fork and blockchain initiatives, in front of about 70 people.

The CoinDesk-run panel, moderated by chief editor Pete Rizzo, was streamed on Facebook Live. A lighter demeanor permeated throughout the evening as topics were delved into with depth, honesty, and hope given an increasing understanding of the ongoing issues surrounding Bitcoin by a wider audience.

Shrem began by expressing his deep appreciation to be back and active in the Bitcoin community, and quipped about how much has changed over the past few years since taking time off from the space.

In an exchange with Santori, when the term “DLT” popped up, Charlie in turn was completely confused over what this meant!

Marco and the laughing audience knew all too well that “Distributed Ledger Technology” is an ongoing race towards taming blockchain into simply an Oracle-style database.

Charlie provided enthusiastic, experienced thoughts throughout, and even shared some initial details around Mainstreet.ky — a blockchain securitized asset platform that will look to pool investments in infrastructure and manufacturing companies.

On the Trend of ICOs

ICOs are increasing in popularity and amplifying regulatory pressures, while luring investors and curious entrepreneurs alike. Speaking to this, Shrem remarked, “ICOs are a really cool model, but it depends on how you’re doing it… you need to be careful of the legal ramifications, the technology behind it, with proper storage, and sound technology, otherwise it’s risky like TheDAO.”

From a legal perspective, demand for blockchain-related professional services and legal advice is also increasing. Santori drew parallels to earlier innovation in crowdfunding, adding “I’m a big appcoin supporter, I think it’s a great model… When you look at Kickstarter, that model, there were a lot of skeptics at first. There’s a lot to learn from their model to get it right without selling securities.”

Shrem on the Ethereum Hard Fork

Charlie: “I was so against the hard fork…. I cried about that originally…. The whole point is about integrity…. Having data on the blockchain that can’t be turned back… It was a very bad precedent that was set… But, look what we have now? Two huge communities that have been growing… It’s okay to have differences of opinion… Perhaps in the early days of Bitcoin this was not the case.”

Santori on the Delaware Blockchain Initiative

Excitingly, there are ongoing programs being developed to facilitate the issuance of blockchain-based shares for small companies. T0 and AirBitz have been pioneering in this work, and the Delaware Blockchain Initiative is bringing a new level of muscle to the mainstream regulatory adoption of the technology.

Santori detailed his excitement, saying “There’s very cool things going on around corporate security and entrepreneurial laws… We can put a security on a blockchain for a small company… the native asset is the corporate share, the security… It is the “Blockchain/DLT ‘Holy Land’.”

On Central Banks and Digital Currency

Marco: Utility settlement coin (USC) is a project between a few of the world’s largest banks so that they don’t have to settle transactions…. There’s a tremendous cost saving to not have to remediate at the end of the day… What if the Bank Of England steps in and gives recognition to a coin like this? Then all of a sudden these coins have real value.

One additional topic of note was that leading Bitcoin exchange CoinBase received a subpoena from the IRS regarding identities of customers from the 2013-2015 period.

All in all, the event was a success. The audience even got to play a game of bingo based off of which words were mentioned, with rewards in bitcoin.

“We have two subreddits now, for Bitcoin”, Shrem joked.

“It could have died, it could have went away, and it did the complete opposite. Bitcoin is back with a vengeance, baby!”

What do you think about the CoinDesk on Tap panel’s discussion? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Who really understands what a blockchain is? Could you explain it to your mother? Chain CEO Adam Ludwin got down to fundamentals yesterday, as he explained his company’s intention to transform financial services by digitizing already-existing assets.

Blockchains Transform Finance From the Bottom Up

Adam Ludwin

Assets including U.S. dollars and Starbucks points could move on blockchains with greater efficiency and security, he said.

“A blockchain is actually a new type of database,” he said, adding that it’s a “boring” topic that only fills conference halls because it involves money and wealth. These aspects still have the power to transform financial services and thus society though, he added.

“A blockchain is like a digital network of safety deposit boxes, in the sky.”

You don’t have physical possession of a safety deposit box but you do have a key, he said. Anyone can have control of those keys, individuals and institutions.

Other (non-blockchain) FinTech models are trying to transform financial services from the top down, connecting back into existing infrastructure like banks. Blockchain, on the other hand, starts at the bottom of the stack, with the creation of the asset itself. Then it works up from there.

Bitcoin seeks to build a financial system completely outside any existing network, Ludwin said. When Bitcoin proponents talk about moving away from the dollar completely it sounded like “I’m going to get shotguns and bitcoins and go live in the mountains,” he quipped, adding that he still thinks Bitcoin is “great”.

Ludwin: Chain to Focus on Results, Not Hype Cycle

Most of what you’ll hear about Chain from now on will be from partner firms like VISA, he said. The company is moving out of the “hype cycle” and wants to focus on real-world results.

A day earlier, Chain also announced it is open-sourcing its platform, and published its technology roadmap for the next five years.

Moderator Robert Hackett of Fortune asked if there is any “snake oil” in the industry. Ludwin replied it’s good to see a Darwinian-style winnowing-down of those projects focusing on hype more than real outcomes — which is common in all tech sectors.

How Chain Moved from Bitcoin to Asset Chain Development

Chain launched in April 2014 as a company building Bitcoin APIs. The intent was to build tools to make life easier for Bitcoin developers. After demonstrating the technology to clients, however, they asked fundamental questions about how blockchains actually move value. And in doing so, they opened the Chain team’s eyes about how financial networks functioned.

“There’s a real problem in the market around asset movement,and security and custody, and it’s a much bigger and harder problem,” Ludwin said. Neither Bitcoin, Ethereum nor even Ripple was designed to solve this. Chain then put its heads down for two years to develop the technology it’s releasing right now.

What the Financial Services Industry Really Needs

Chain has sat down with executive-level employees at financial services firms to get a better understanding of their needs.

Their companies have proprietary assets (such as loyalty points) and they want to control the networks those assets move on, Ludwin said. They don’t see open, public blockchains as a viable option.

It’s important for networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum to remain decentralized, he said, because that’s the whole reason they exist. Permissioned blockchains are more about finding the least amount of centralization its participating entities need. Each node can control a different function in the consensus process.

Chain sees itself as halfway between existing financial infrastructure and the Bitcoin network, he said. The aim is to integrate with what exists rather than trying to replace everything.

Is Ludwin right about the nature of blockchains and how they can transform our world? Let’s hear your thoughts.

Advertising

CoinsBank Blockchain Party to Promote Innovation

6-9 of October/ Belek, Turkey (Gloria Serenity Resort). We believe that true progress and mass adoption of blockchain technology will only come from collaboration. We want to bring together the finest minds to change the world.

Disclaimer: This is a press release. Bitcoinist is not responsible for this firm’s products and/or services.

CoinsBank is pleased to introduce the Blockchain Party, to be held on 6-9 October in Belek, Turkey. The Party is a semi-private and unique event, designed to connect people with the aim of bringing blockchain technology to the mainstream.

Main topics of the Party:

– Current issues facing blockchain technology

– The potential of blockchain for good

– Banks’ concerns around bitcoin and blockchain

– Current trends in broader technology (Big Data, Internet-of-Things)

– Regulation and security for blockchain enterprises

– Blockchain-based government

– What’s new? (Smart contracts, Segregated Witness)

Program:

– Welcome cocktail party – October 6, 2016;

– Conferences with the most prominent speakers from all over the world on October 7-8, 2016;

– Roundtable and panel discussions;

– Gala Dinner – October 7, 2016;

– Main Party with incredible program for the night, a world-known superstar show and numerous surprises from organizing team – October 8, 2016;

WHY attend:

– VIP transfer will transport every guest from the airport directly to the hotel, where the event will take place.

– Location of event is one of the best hotels by the Mediterranean Sea – Gloria Serenity Resort.

– Guests from more than 25 countries.

– Coinsbank guarantees guests complete safety for the duration of their stay.

ATTENTION! The number of admissions for participation is LIMITED.

Deadline for application filing is September 1, 2016.

Leave your suits and wallets at home, and bring your swimsuits and high spirit for this ALL INCLUSIVE ULTRA OPULENT PARTY!

Education not Speculation: Message from the Blockchain Training Conference

In a conference at Toronto, the heart of the Canadian blockchain industry, technologist and author of Mastering Blockchain, Andreas Antonopoulos, gave a chilling keynote urging technologist to invest in core skills around blockchain and not to worry and speculate about price swings of virtual currencies.

He made many parallels around past technologies, where technologists who invested in learning the core technologies like .NET, Java, and HTML made significant progress in their careers.

He speculated that a similar trend is happening now in the burgeoning blockchain industry, where startups are struggling to find talent to put to work to implement the use cases that would entrench blockchain and the ‘Internet of value’ into medium and large enterprises.

Antonopoulos writes:

When introduced to bitcoin, most people see it as a speculative asset, like a stock. But stocks have volatility and risk and the skills required to invest in them are highly specialized. Instead, I propose that these new inventions should be approached primarily as technical innovations. The primary focus should be investment in education, skills and career building. Those skills are transferrable across crypto-currencies, asset-tokens, smart contracts and the entire ecosystem.

Blockchain Training Conference: Education for Everyone

After the keynote speech by Antonopoulos, the conference was divided into two tracks: one technical (DevCore), and the other non-technical (Alliance).

MC Pamela Morgan and organizer Michael Perklin worked tirelessly to stage a conference that brought leaders together to educate, inspire, and connect enthusiasts in the blockchain industry. They not only ran the entire logistics of the conference, but also were speakers at the conference.

Technologists attending the conference were exposed to a broad range of topics in the Bitcoin and blockchain world — such as blockchain data structures, Segregated Witness, CLTV, and Lightning Network Channels. Many of the topics were hands on and were well attended by engineers from many vertical industries.

Non-technical attendees had many topics to choose from, including a talk on Ethereum and presentations about AML, “Systems of Record vs. Systems of Authority,” and “Accounting with Blockchains.” There were plenty of investment nuggets and ideas for non-technical attendees to think about and take it back to their employers.

Furthermore, arrangements were made on-site for anyone to take the examination for getting a “Certified Bitcoin Professional (CBP)” professional certification. Covering 75 questions from 33 topics in only 20 minutes, CBP is both rigorous and fast-paced.

The entire conference and the presentations will be made available for free on YouTube at a later date.

What are your thoughts Antonopoulos’ message? Let us know in the comments below!

‘DashnDrink’: Dash-Powered Vending Machine Returning for d10e

Disclaimer: This article was provided by the Vanbex Group. Bitcoinist is not affiliated with the firms represented by the Vanbex Group and is not responsible for their products and/or services.

DashnDrink Returns Better Than Ever

The innovative point of sale soda machine project put together by Jeremy Maus and Dustin Eward, two Dash investors, two pioneering chaps, will be making another long-awaited appearance at this year’s d10e Conference in San Francisco this July.

Maus explained, the machine will feature an upgraded CPU from the initial Raspberry Pi unit to an Odroid Xu4.

“It will be done in time for d10e,” said Maus, “and will be four to five times faster to boot up.”

For anyone unfamiliar with the story, their invention, coined DashnDrink, launched in December as a project funded by Dash’s built-in self-governance system.

“A proposal was submitted to the DASH budget system for voting,” according to Maus and Eward, detailing the project for Eric Sammons of Bitcoin.com in January 2016.

“Within a week, it received enough votes and was successfully funded directly from the blockchain.”

For anyone unfamiliar, the cryptocurrency Dash is “a privacy-centric digital currency with instant transactions. It is based on the Bitcoin software, but it has a two tier network that improves it.”

Its governance model is decentralized as well. Projects are proposed and Masternode owners, who also receive Dash in return for hosting a node or nodes, vote in order to determine if the development will proceed.

Maus explained, they wanted to demonstrate the power of InstantSend, to show Dash could send funds instantly, without issues of double-spending.

The DashnDrink was wheeled out to the North American Bitcoin Conference held in Miami in late January, where attendees successfully used the machine to purchase a drink using Dash in a matter of seconds.

The entire exchange made possible by InstantSend technology.

Evan Duffield, core developer of Dash, Holger Schinzel, head of quality management at Dash and Fernando Gutierrez released a whitepaper together on the concept in September 2014, titled, “Transaction Locking and Masternode Consensus: A Mechanism for Mitigating Double Spending Attacks.”

To summarize, instant validation (or near instant validation) of payment with Dash is possible because of the digital currency’s strong masternode infrastructure, which ensures the network is always operational and so transaction locking and pursuant consensus among Masternodes can be conducted to complete the transaction.

“In most cases a transaction should be validated by the network within a few seconds of originally being broadcasted,” the whitepaper read in 2014.

The 2016 soda machine proved that to be true.

The original machine, outfitted with a Raspberry Pi programmed to connect to InstantSend was put together in a span of two months, “a pretty big feat at the time,” says Maus, who is also currently working on a mobile payment solution called DashnGo.

DashnDrink has flown below the radar thus far, considering the fact that it represents a point of sale product that addresses a fundamental problem of Bitcoin — instant transactions.

The return to the limelight — and out of Eward’s garage where the machine has stood since leaving the Miami conference — may be the moment digital currency enthusiasts, supporters and investors begin to see Dash and its InstantSend capability as paradigm-shifting.

Advertising

Vancouver, B.C. — The Vanbex Group and d10e are proud to announce a new partnership between the Vancouver-based professional services firm and international conference hosts d10e.

Disclaimer: This is a press release. Bitcoinist is not responsible for this firm’s products and/or services.

The Vanbex Group will provide communications, public relations and strategic services to d10e to help deliver an unprecedented, exclusive and intimate exploration of the hottest developments in decentralization.

“We are very excited to be part of d10e and to introduce an evolution in conferencing with virtual reality technology,” said Kevin Hobbs, director at Vanbex Group. “The prospect of globalizing d10e, opening accessibility to the widest parameters … technologically, is great for business and for general interest.”

The fifth installment of d10e returns to San Francisco for a two-day event, July 19-20, that will feature a studded cast of keynotes, including Andreas Antonopoulos, computer security and Bitcoin expert who has advised hundreds of organizations on emerging technologies and trends for over two decades.

July’s conference will also mark the first ever blockchain-related event to be streamed live globally, in virtual reality (VR). The industrial-grade VR camera and unique VR live streaming service is being brought to d10e by Shanghai Blockchain Network Technology Co. Ltd and their strategic business partners in North America, Time Technologies (Canada) Ltd. and The Vanbex Group.

Time Technologies will also have a special VR corner where attendees will be able to view and use the emerging technology of live streaming.

Vanbex Group CEO Lisa Cheng will take to the stage at d10e as well.

Cheng specializes in advising emerging tech startups. She is an expert in business development and product strategy with experience that includes Fortune 500 companies, enterprise sales, big data, and SaaS applications.

“D10e is an event like none other because of its expansive inclusion on the latest technologies in bitcoin, blockchain, and decentralization in general,” said Cheng. “Having attended events around the world, d10e still stands out as something exceptional, the energy, the buzz, everything.”

Further rounding out the growing list of speakers is managing partner at Blockchain Capital, Brock Pierce, who will speak on the future of blockchain technologies and how they relate to decentralization.

The conference is slated to be one of the most talked-of events on fintech, disruptive tech, the sharing economy and more, and promises to deliver one of the most exciting lineup of keynotes, panel discussions and sponsors.

Stay up to date with the latest announcements in decentralization, the conference and more by signing up for the newsletter at d10e.org.

About d10e

D10e, a numeronym for decentralization, is composed of members mostly based in the United States, distributed from the east to west coast. Led by CEO Tiffany Madison, the organization originated as Coin Congress. Guided by insightful advisors, they launched two successful 2014 events in Singapore and San Francisco which included 60 top professionals and 400+ attendees representing 200 companies. Visit d10e.org for more information.

About The Vanbex Group

Established in 2013 as a strategic communications organization to better tell the story of blockchain-based companies, Vanbex has since evolved into a professional services firm specializing in all aspects of the blockchain industry. From grassroots marketing, application development, communications, strategy, public relations, and operations consulting, Vanbex assists at any stage in a company’s growth. Visit vanbex.com to read more about the Vancouver-based company.